Improvement in automatic attachments for car-couplings



a. H. MERRIAM. Automatic Atta chments for Car-CouplingsL No. 145,673, Patented Dec. 16,1873

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE H. MERRIAM, OF PORTLAND, MAINE.

IMPROVEMENT IN AUTOMATIC ATTACHMENTS FOR CAR-COUPLINGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N0.145,673, dated Decembtr 16, 1873; application filed January 9, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE H. MERnIAM, of Portland, in the county of Cumberland and State of Maine, have invented a new and Improved Attachment to Oar-Couplings; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, in which- Figiue 1 is a perspective .view of my invention, and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of the same.

Similar letters of reference in the accompanying drawings denote the same parts.

This invention is an improvement upon that for which Letters Patent ,No. 130,651, were issued to me, August 20,1872. As of that invention, so of this, the object is to provide for the public a new article of manufacture, to wit A simple and cheap device which can be readily attached to any of the old-fashioned draw-heads without altering their construction in any respect, for the purposeof enabling them to couple the cars automatically; and to this end the invention consists in the construction and employment of a device made independently of the draw-head, and adapted to be attached to or removed from it at pleasure, for the purpose above indicated, and substantially as I will now proceed to describe.

In the drawing, A is a box, made of cast or malleable iron, or any other suitable material, and of a size suited to the interior of the drawhead, into which it is to be inserted. The box A has open sides and a slot running crosswise of its back end, in which is placed 'a piece of flexible metal, a, which is of a length a little greater than the width of the interior of the back part of the draw-head. Through the front end of the box A passes a rod, B, and in a hole in this rod a pin, 1), is placed,

which bears against the inside of the end of the box, and thus prevents the rod from separating from the latter. The front end of the In putting it in place, the flexible crosspiece a bends forward at each end as it enters the throat of the draw-head, so that it is impossible to remove it without applying great force. A slight backward thrust by the link against the concave end of the block 0 moves it back from under the pin and lets the latter fall within the link. The spring I) throws the block outward again when the pin is pulled up. The overhang 0 holds the link in a horizontal position while the cars are separated, and its recess 0 assists in keeping the pin upright.

The block should be made small enough to allow the link to enter the draw-head as far as though the block were not there.

Some differences between this and my former invention lie in the disuse of the bent plate and spring-clasps of the latter, the substitution of the box A for the plate B, and the employment of the crosspiece a and recess 0, all

which tend toward greater simplicity and efficiency.

What I claim as new is- The combination of a box, A, cross-bar a, rod B, block 0, having an overhang. O, and spring I), substantially as and for the purposes specified.

\Vitnesses: GEO. H. MERRIAM.

A. W. GooMBs, JosEPH A. DIRWANGER. 

